Artha - Influencing Dreams

Artha first got certain recognition for his production skills and vision when he joined a Psynews.org contest to make a Goa track for a free digital compilation. This was in 2002, back when his sound was (naturally) rougher and sort of more energetic if you’d like. As time passed, Michal from Poland, refined his sound, and his music became cleverer and more twisted and he advanced in his hallucinogenic trance motion with subliminal patterns. After years without anyone daring to pick up and release his masterful music, Cronomi Records teamed up last year together with Ektoplazm.com and finally decided go full throttle and release a free digital EP named ‘Fluori Dolby’ (http://www.ektoplazm.com/2010/artha-fluori-dolby-ep). This release quickly grew in popularity and demand since it had feelings of lost magic and forgotten rituals. His style was a long sought after imitation of how real emotional and complex Goa trance was supposed to sound and feel, it was like someone had released 'Hallucinogen 3’ under a different alias.

Ok so here it is, in blunt words. This album is a MASTERPIECE. It has all the grooves, the turns and trance-flows a psychedelic explorer searches after when it comes to the Goa in trance. If you’re already familiar with Hallucinogen's earlier work, like the Twisted album released in ‘95, you will quickly realize how beautiful this full album release is. And this I say no matter how similar it is to Hallucinogen with some Shpongle influences here and there, or should I say inspiration. Influencing Dreams is fantastic trance music with beautiful cosmic voyages that absolutely deserves and craves your love and attention. For years, since Hallucinogen released his second album The Lone Deranger in ’97, people around the globe had been crying for a third album from the master (Simon Posford). Well people, a Hallucinogen copy or not, here it is, this album is for you!

Ok, so enough about the fact that it sounds very much like Hallucinogen. This album has of course a lot of originality from Artha’s own heart and emotions. It’s filled with beautiful melodies and sexy tricks. It is satisfyingly lengthy, giving you a proper trip for the money spent on purchasing an original copy.

What seems to lack in this release might be what Artha used to have before becoming professional, more power/energy and rougher pads- a stronger identity and better coherency would also be appreciated.. The album artwork seems cheap, but really it's super trippy! The track names however, give me little to no inspiration, though one can argue that track names means nothing, I think differently because for me names and art will and may boost the impression of a track or an album, it becomes an extended identity of the ,,product”. The artwork has been cleverly created by a Tomasz Rożyński. I like the design scheme where one can hold it against the light and see how the front and back picture sort of morphs nicely into each other.

Recomendation

:
A couple of days ago while for the first time listening to the album, I fell in love. This was passion in music I had been missing. The following night I had the most extraordinary ‘in space with alien races’ sort of dream. When I woke up, I had to ask myself; Influencing Dreams, really? … Mastering is well done. Everything is super, and some of the extra bass-drive in some of the tracks is nothing but stunning to get driven with. If you’re a fan of melodic Goa trance with intelligence and psychedelic drive, there is no doubt- GET THIS ALBUM!